Phoenix Ikki
Review by StarSaber
D.D. Panoramation is a new line recreating Saint Seiya’s heroes and villains packaged with diorama pieces to recreate classic scenes from the anime and manga. Having recently started the series I decided to give one of these figures a look.
Phoenix Ikki is the first major villain of the series, a childhood friend of our protagonists who later joins them in battle. He comes with the diorama parts, two splayed hands, a right pointing hand, an extra head, and a giant effect part for his Ho Yoku Tensho attack.
These figures are pretty affordable (compared to Bandai’s other Saint Seiya offerings) but at 4 inches tall, they’ll be dwarfed by your other shounen heroes.
For his size Ikki still looks superb. His Phoenix Cloth is incredibly shiny.
Ikki comes with two heads, one helmeted with a neutral face, and one with his massive mullet and a yelling face. You can switch the faces between the two but it’s a pain as the entire helmeted head tends to fall to pieces when you remove the helmet. The crest tends to fall off the helmet a lot too.
Ikki’s articulation is remarkable, but slightly hampered by the tails hanging from his back.
Some assembly is required for the Ho Yoku Tensho, which comes in seven pieces in the box plus two more for the display stand.
Even more assembly is required for the diorama pieces; everything but the base comes out of a runner. The pieces pop right out but you might want to sand down the nubs a bit. You get four long and four short column pieces, four double-ended column pieces, four joint parts, and two clips to attach the base to other D.D. Panoramation sets. The base not only has holes for pillars and Tamashii stands but also smaller pegs that go into Ikki’s feet.
The final result of Ikki on the diorama piece does look pretty cool but feels distinctly lacking. While every figure coming with a slice of Greek architecture is neat, this seems designed with the intention that you can’t buy just one figure, you’ve gotta buy a whole bunch to round out your miniature Sanctuary. I, for one, am hooked, and intend on buying at least a few more of these things.